Each day we plan to share innovative teaching and learning ideas submitted by readers. Sarah Elia starts us off by sharing how she harnesses the power of technology to help English language learners
build their speaking and listening skills.

Idea: Use messaging apps along with Times articles and videos to help develop English language learners’ academic reading, speaking and listening skills — with a focus on improving pronunciation
and building vocabulary.

Why We Chose It: Listening, observing, speaking, note-taking, making connections to real-life experiences and cultures students know well — these ideas touch on all the hallmarks of successful
instruction for English language learners. And employing messaging apps and video sites is a great use of technology that many students have a familiarity with and affinity for.

What Ms. Elia Did, and Why, in Her Own Words

I teach a class called Reading Workshop in an intensive English program. Most of the students enroll in the program to prepare for academic coursework and eventually seek a degree at the university.

Idea 1: Use Times articles along with messaging apps like WeChat to prepare English language learners at a university for reading in academic classes.

Photo

Rujie Zhao, a student, preparing a voice recording on his cellphone to summarize an article from The New York Times.Credit Waleed Binselim

I ask students to choose any New York Times article that is related to their field of study (business, music, health, etc.). They then read the article quietly in class as I circulate to answer questions about vocabulary
or content. By the end of class, students must finish reading the article and be able to orally summarize its contents. They do this by sending me a voice message through the messaging app WeChat,
along with their response to the article. In the response, they must make a cultural comparison; for example, how this article would be perceived if published in their home country or how the topic of the article
differs from issues in their home country.

I then listen to the audio recording and send them oral feedback. Once a month, students review their audio recordings and write a self-evaluation of their growth over the past month. They also identify goals for the
coming months.

By reading and responding to Times articles, students develop critical thinking skills with a focus on culture and cultural differences and sharpen their reading comprehension skills. They also expand their vocabulary
and strengthen their speaking skills, especially in pronunciation.

Idea 2: Throughout the semester, students use New York Times videos to develop vocabulary, improve their listening comprehension and hone their skills in critical thinking and debating.

I use The New York Times’s YouTube page in my Listening and Speaking for Academic Purposes class for English language learners. I
like this better than other popular video sites like TED and CNN because of the real “human” and multicultural aspects of Times videos. I use the videos to teach about note-taking (mostly using the
Cornell Method).

Students watch the videos at home and use their notes to help with comprehension quizzes in class. We have in-class debates, often centered on cultural issues that were presented in the videos. The vocabulary in the
New York Times videos is so rich that it is perfect for ELLs. I have them list at least 10 new words that they learned in each video and we add those words to their class vocabulary list. Students also incorporate
these words in the debates and class discussions. It is so helpful in preparing students for future academic coursework.